Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts · 2014-10-30 · Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts Beverley Patwell, MA, CHRP President,

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Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts

Beverley Patwell, MA, CHRP President, Patwell Consulting

Industrial Relations Centre (IRC) Faculty of Arts & Science Queen’s University Kingston, ON K7L 3N6

Tel: 613-533-6628 Fax: 613-533-6812 Email: [email protected] Visit us at: irc.queensu.ca

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Organizations that seek to create and sustain culture shifts must do more than train leaders

to lead and manage in new ways. They must also be effective in developing people at all

levels of the organization to sustain these culture shifts. Leading, developing and managing

people in real time is critical for the long-term success of culture shifts.

This type of human development is complex. It must be aligned with the strategic priorities

of the organization yet have meaning and relevance not just for leaders but for everyone if it

is to be sustainable over time. Change must be adopted at all levels of the organization and

incorporated into the core of thinking and behavior in the organization. As a result, we need

to look at leadership development differently in terms of how we learn, transmit

knowledge, develop skills and how we measure and evaluate it.

My company, Patwell Consulting, has been developing and implementing large scale,

complex leadership development programs for over three decades. Based on years of

research and practice in large organizations, I have created unique design elements in my

programs aimed at sustainable leadership that focuses on helping leaders to play an active

role in leading change, transmitting their knowledge, and dealing with business challenges.

These elements that I will discuss, go far beyond the classroom to engage people at all levels

and achieve results that embed and sustain culture shifts in organizations.

This article synthesizes my experiences in developing a Sustainable Leadership

Development Framework. This framework moves through four stages that help build and

ground the implementation of an organization’s leadership development strategy through a

vision and strategic steps that result in lasting organizational culture shifts. Examples of

wise practices will be given to highlight the key concepts of this framework so that you too

can use these strategies to increase the potential of leadership sustainability in your

organization.

What is Leadership Sustainability?

Let’s begin by defining leadership sustainability. In my view, a leader is someone who

people admire and will follow, who can direct and guide others, and who can make

decisions that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. In prior decades, it was

sufficient for someone to have natural leadership skills such as charisma, intelligence,

vision, and political savvy. In today’s world, however, the complexity of the business world,

globalization, and the rapid pace of change makes it difficult, if not impossible, to rely on a


fixed set of skills that last the lifetime of a leader. Sustainable leadership today must be far

more dynamic and evolving. Leaders must continuously improve their skills, keep an eye

on trends, stay abreast of technology, and be willing to change both themselves and the

culture of their company.

This presents a paradox because leadership sustainability implies lasting change yet it also

requires a different way of thinking and a shift in mindset that ultimately shapes the culture

of the organization. Every organization needs good, solid leadership that acts as the

foundation of its culture. At the same time, it needs these leaders to grow, learn, adapt,

innovate and move with the pace of its organization and context. This requires what I call

Leadership Sustainability. I define this as the practice, structure and mechanisms that can

help leaders apply constant learning and development at the individual, team,

organizational and community levels so that they can continue to advance their leadership,

especially in the context of leading and maintaining successful culture shifts.

My ideas about leadership sustainability were inspired extensively by my work and training

in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I studied Special Care Counseling at Vanier College,

and later, Applied Social Sciences at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. In those

programs, I learned the fundamentals of human systems thinking, a theory that has shaped

my work in organizational development and coaching. In order to sustain change on the

individual, team, organizational and cultural levels, I learned that we must first understand

individuals (and to some extent, small teams) within their own context. Only then we can

apply this understanding to improve how individuals relate to larger systems, be these

family, large teams, departments, organizations, communities and the world.

This principle is critical today as we operate in a world of complexities and constantly

shifting interdependencies among many external and internal forces that impact large-scale

systems. One cannot influence or change organizations and their culture by manipulating

the “system” at the macro level and expect that the individuals who compose the system

will change. It is somewhat analogous to the “butterfly effect” in that if you want to shift

weather patterns, you cannot start at 35,000 feet with the tops of the clouds, but rather, you

must be begin with the flapping of the butterfly wings wherever they are. Large-scale

systems are simply too powerful if not too cumbersome to change, buffeted as they are in

today’s world by a multitude of unpredictable forces including technology, politics,


environmental issues, social change, and more. We need now more than ever to consider the

human element when developing strategies for sustainable change.

And this impacts leadership—how we teach, develop, and support it so that it, too, is

sustainable. Given this systems thinking approach, I have come to see Leadership

Sustainability as far more important in organizational success than achieving the results of

any one single change initiative. Organizations may be able to transform themselves with

great results based on some flavor-of-the-year change program, but sustaining a deeply

grounded culture change for decades requires a very different view of leadership and

consequently how we develop our people and evaluate our programs.

In their book Leadership Sustainability: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the Changes Great Leaders

Know They Must Make, David Ulrich and Norm Smallwood define leadership sustainability

as a concept parallel to environmental sustainability (p. vii). In the environmental view,

organizations must seek to shape their culture and all its actions to enhance their reputation

as responsible members of their community and custodians of the world’s resources. In a

similar way, leadership sustainability begins with recognition that what matters most is the

impact of leaders’ actions on others in their community. What counts are not the results of

their actions or the rationale behind them, but rather the personal intentions and observable

behaviors of leaders and how they impact the people in the organization.

Leadership Sustainability takes courage and time. It is not easy to achieve. It is more rare

than one might think. In Leadership Sustainability (Ulrich and Smallwood) they describe

McKinsey’s research that found only 30% of major organizational change initiatives succeed

over a long-term and that proportion drops to just 19% for culture-change initiatives. Their

conclusion: “The critical issue is how the change is accomplished, not so much what the

change is” (p.5 Leadership Sustainability by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood).

Culture Change vs. Culture Shift

Before I talk further about leadership sustainability, it is important to clarify a term that is

misleading and often at the root of many problems in understanding leadership

sustainability. We have been using the term “culture change” for decades. It is ingrained in

our vocabulary as a key leadership competency. I prefer to use the word “culture shift”.


Based on my work, this is more representative of the reality of what I experience in my

work. We are developing and implementing strategies that create change that comes about

from shifts in the way we work. When these shifts are designed and coordinated across the

organization they result in culture change. Working with culture shifts is a more organic

and natural approach that helps people engage with the new direction and also helps them

to relate to the changes from their own perspectives, roles and responsibilities. Culture shifts

are smart adjustments in organizations that are created through the implementation of new

business models, organizational designs, new or improved business processes, technologies

and ultimately changes in the way we are in relationship to each other, our colleagues,

clients, partners and the external community.

Culture shifts imply a sense of a philosophical change to mindsets and behaviors that can

help organizations be more effective and successful. For example, an organization might

need to move away from working in a hierarchical structure to working in a network, or

from working in silos to leading with influence and collaborating in cross-functional, cross-

professional and cross-organizational teams. These are shifts in the way we work and when

coordinated, become part of the larger culture change.

People are more accepting, and even willing, to embrace shifts rather than change. One of

my clients, four months into a program I was conducting with them, said he had never had

the degree of buy-in and motivation as he was having with his company when we talked

about “shifts” rather than culture change. Adopting this term inspired people to accept the

new behaviors and processes they were seeking to implement. People began speaking the

same language about the need to find new ways of working, adopting new values and

beliefs that were quite different from six months prior to the start of our initiative. He could

detect that a shift had happened when he saw and heard his people thinking and doing

things differently.

The Sustainable Leadership Development Framework

In my work over many years with large organizations, I have been experimenting and

developing programs that could intentionally foster leadership sustainability. Within the

past few years, I have solidified my work into one framework that can be integrated and

support any type of leadership development program. This framework was originally


designed to help implement and evaluate the impact of a “Service Excellence Leads

Development Program” in the City of Ottawa, Canada.1

At that time, Ottawa was implementing a strategy to foster a culture of service excellence

citywide that would impact employees at all levels of the organization. The City was

seeking a process to evaluate the program’s design, content and learning at the individual,

project team, and organizational levels. They wanted to be able to measure how well they

were doing in achieving their objectives in this change initiative, and how to understand

what would be needed to sustain learning and the culture shifts once the program was

completed.

As I began working with Ottawa, I saw that they were asking the same key questions that

most organizations struggle with when initiating a culture change:

1. How can we evaluate the impact of the program on the work we do and our strategic

goals and objectives?

2. How can we ensure what people learn in the classroom is integrated in their work

and transferred to others?

3. What is our return on the investment?

4. How can we make sure people adopt the new behaviors, concepts and principles in

their work and life?

5. How can we ensure we can carry on the program without you, the trainer, consultant

and coach?

6. How much will it cost in terms of time, resources and money?

These questions are complex to answer. They are often handled in isolation of each other

and not integrated in a systemic way. It became clear that to develop a sustainability plan,

these issues must be considered upfront in the design of the change programs and initiatives

as well as the leadership development strategies.

In working with Ottawa, my ideas gelled into a set of four key stages that became the

Sustainable Leadership Development Framework. These stages occur in sequence, though

there is some overlap among the stages and going through them can be iterative. These

four key stages are constantly at play in the design, delivery and evaluation of any

1 An Innovative Approach to Fostering A Culture of Service Excellence in the City of Ottawa. (2012)

http://irc.queensu.ca/articles/innovative-approach-fostering-culture-service-excellence-city-ottawa



leadership development program (Figure 1). In the rest of this article, we will walk through

the stages one by one and observe how they create the foundation for leadership

sustainability.

Figure 1: The Stages of a Sustainable Leadership Development Framework

Stage 1: Alignment

This first stage involves defining the purpose of the leadership development or change

program and articulating how it supports the organization’s vision, context and strategic

priorities. This step requires involvement from the senior leaders responsible for leading the

changes.

The goal of alignment is to ensure leaders at all levels understand their role in leading,

managing and participating in the change journey.


This process is often best done by forming a Design Team comprised of a cross section or

representation of the people who will be leading and participating in the program. The team

should have representation from the key business leaders and the support functions e.g.

human resources, organizational development, communications, and six sigma/process

improvement/change leaders, depending on how the organization is structured. External

consultants can be partners in this process and should be included so they too can deepen

their understanding of the context of the organization, the challenges, and what is required

for success. This Design Team’s mandate is to align the program with the organization’s

mission and strategy and test the feasibility of the program’s design, content, delivery, and

supports pre-, during, and post program to ensure it meets the needs of the organization

and objectives. Through working together on this team effort, knowledge transfer,

development and alignment take place, leading to a more sustainable culture shift.

These are some of the questions to consider in planning the alignment stage:

1. How does this program or change support our strategic direction?

2. What is the purpose of this program?

3. Who will be participating?

4. How are we involving the senior leaders? Key stakeholders?

5. How much time and effort will it require of people to participate?

6. What will be the benefit for each group involved? Our product? Our clients?

The alignment stage should not be taken lightly. Frankly, I believe that, in order to be

successful in creating, leading, and managing sustainable change, leaders must invest in a

serious study of their organization in order to know how it truly works, what is sacred to

keep, and what is open to change. They need to take time to understand the organization’s

history, its evolution, its values and current practices before they embark on changing or

shifting it. Effectively, if any culture shift is to succeed, it must be aligned with the

organizational context and strategies, as well as any other initiatives going on, to achieve

sustainable transformational change.

Shifts cannot be rushed. Transformational culture change takes time. Unfortunately, in our

fast-paced work environments, people are often impatient and want change to happen

overnight. Really meaningful shifts can take months, if not a year or more. Through deep

reflection and patient study, leaders can learn what is important to hold onto out of respect


for the organization’s history, what is useful to leverage from their existing culture to

accomplish change, and what might need to be completely jettisoned because it hinders the

organization’s ability to compete or progress. This process, if done well, pays off in the long

term as the work gets done more collaboratively and with a common sense of purpose that

holds everyone accountable.

One organization I worked with involved most of their senior leaders and managers from

the next level down in their design team. The group worked together to define the strategic

priorities and expected outcomes of their leadership development program. They invited

feedback from both levels of leaders, which was then integrated into the program content

and design. This process worked well and created alignment and strong commitment to the

strategy. They also developed a common language across departments and functions about

the vision for change. This process also engaged the next level of leadership as active

leaders, participants, advocates, and supporters of the program, resulting in stronger

teamwork in the executive leadership group, which proved valuable when going into this

large change initiative.

Here are some ways to measure and evaluate the Alignment Phase.

Ways to measure impact during Alignment Strategies for next steps

Degree of common language and commitment

at strategic levels (Executive Team, Senior

Leaders, critical stakeholders)

Depth of understanding of the Senior Managers

and Executive Team in their role and

contribution in the change process

Clarity of the vision, goals and objectives with

the overall strategy and organizational

direction.

Degree of commitment, alignment and conflict

Level of teamwork/participation

Commitment to the process

Frequency of inclusion of the program or

change initiatives in communications at all

levels of the organization

Discuss observations and respond to feedback

or suggestions

Provide direction, tools and supports for

communication

Design working sessions that are meaningful

and provides opportunity for input, decision

making, teamwork

Have people observe other parts of the

organization to gain empathy and

understanding of complex issues, resistance and

other factors that influence their positions

Share examples, best/wise practices

Demonstrate the application of concepts to

your organizational context

Develop examples that illustrate where you are

headed

Develop key messages together


Stage 2: Integration

Leaders are often sent to “training” to learn new concepts and skills, yet are not supported

to continue their development upon return to their workplace. They struggle to integrate

their learning into their work and life.

To ensure sustainability of leadership development, I believe that leadership and change

initiatives must be designed in such a way as to account for meaningful integration of

learning and work. This usually requires customizing the program content and process to

ensure participants use their real work and life experiences as the basis for reflecting,

experimenting, and applying their learning. My view is that a development program loses

great value if it creates additional work that is supposed to be completed outside of

participant’s actual job experience. Learning experiences are most valuable, meaningful, and

relevant when they add value to the participants’ work and life. The key is to engage

participants and motivate them to master and integrate the new concepts, skills and

learning back into their real jobs.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to allow participants to use a real project or

leadership challenge from their work to anchor their learning. Real projects are more

effective than hypothetical research because they stem from actual challenges that must be

acted upon. The choice of projects should be based on a tangible need that participants have

in their workplace and reflect tasks and decisions they can address given their actual span of

control and influence. It is also important that the project be linked to the strategic priorities

of the organization. This “Use Work, Don’t Make Work” approach helps everyone engage

meaningfully in the process and ensures that the work being done in the classroom setting

or offsite will be sustained between sessions and have a real impact in their workplace.

To increase the probability of success and sustainability over the long term, I recommend

that projects or challenges be:

something participants can complete on their own or as part of a team of leaders who

will also be attending the program;

within their span of control or authority;

supported by their immediate manager;

aligned and advance their department’s strategic goals;

focused on helping to cultivate a culture of change; and

designed to support their personal learning objectives.


For example, a senior leader might try to implement

a safety or employee retention strategy that requires

employees to engage in a new vision or develop a

shared mindset different from the current workplace

culture, or simply to work differently as a result of a

new technology. Other ideas for leadership

development projects might be to prepare for an

actual merger that is supposed to take place between

two functions or departments, or to study a process

that changes how customer service is delivered.

Leaders can use such challenges to ground their

learning in the program while at the same time

advance their real work beyond the classroom.

In an Institutional Excellence Leadership

Development Program I conducted with a Canadian

university, we asked senior leaders to identify the

key challenges they believed were blocking their

ability to achieve institutional excellence. Each of

these leaders had to form cross-university, cross-

functional, or cross-professional teams to work on

their challenges, which were real and tied to their

strategic priorities and most importantly to the

university’s vision. This approach permitted the

leaders to begin immediately implementing

concepts they learned in the program into their real

work. It was also designed to help them recognize

themes and patterns experienced by their colleagues

on other teams that highlighted the culture shifts

required for sustainability in the long term.

The teams completed a Leadership Challenge Project

Briefing document as part of their preparatory work,

then reported on their results during the program.

Six months later, they were asked to report again on

how they integrated their learning, what actions

Leadership Challenge Outline 1. Describe the change project or

leadership challenge you want to do: a. What is the context (factors

influencing change: internal and external)

b. Why is it important to address this project or challenge?

c. What are the objectives, deliverables and expected outcomes?

d. Who are the key stakeholders or people that need to be involved in the change?

e. How will you measure success? 2. Describe the anticipated impact of the

change on the: a. People b. Process c. Technology d. Structure e. Culture

3. Provide a project update: a. Where are you in the project plan? b. What key milestones or results have

you achieved? c. What successes have you achieved? d. What is helping you to be successful? e. What is preventing you from being as

successful as you would like to be? f. What are some of your challenges or

learning opportunities? g. Where are you blocked, stalled, or

needing some assistance? h. How ready are your key stakeholders

to participate and engage in the change process?

4. Describe your learning goals and objectives: a. What do you want to accomplish in the

program? b. Where are you having the most

success leading, managing and implementing change?

c. Where are you having the most difficulty?

d. What are the key questions or hot topics that you would like to cover in the workshop that would be most helpful to you and your team in developing your change strategy?


they took, the impact that resulted from their work, and what new principles they learned

about leading in their organization from a personal, team, organizational, community and

cultural perspective.

This process of integrating development learning with real work helped these leaders to

better and earlier grasp the themes, patterns, and actions they needed to take to sustain their

learning and that of others going forward. It maximized their potential for integrating

learning and developing real life strategies that enhanced their leadership abilities.

On page 10, there are some guiding questions that can help your program participants

frame a change project or leadership challenge. This survey also helps the Design Team

track emerging themes and patterns that might also reflect issues in the organizational

culture that need to be addressed in the leadership sustainability plan for individual leaders

and/or organization wide.

Here are ways to measure the impact during the Integration Phase.

Ways to measure impact during Integration Strategies for next steps

Self-assessments pre, during and post the program to assess self-confidence, skills and perceptions

Individual participant survey and evaluations designed to assess satisfaction levels and reactions immediately following a workshop, meeting, intervention

Qualitative and quantitative measurements of what participants thought and felt about the training and development activities as well as their suggestions to improve, enhance and sustain their learning.

Measurement of the participant’s ability to apply and implement their learning through behavior change back in the workplace and at home.

Degree of common language and commitment to the changes

Depth of understanding of their role and contribution in the change process

Follow-up with subset groups of participants from the program

Informal network/peer feedback

Observations and results/outcomes linked to their work

Reports to Executive Leaders and dialogue with participant leaders on the progress of their projects

Share emergent actions and impacts with the Design Team to improve the program design, interventions and learning process.

Hold quarterly checkpoint meetings with the Senior Management Team and relevant stakeholders to educate them on the results, what is required for them to continue championing and leading change and obtain input on what they need to continue supporting the culture shifts.

Develop suggestions

Customize the program, provide examples highlight successes

Use reflections to advance/enhance strategy

Coach upwards and with peers

Use the data to develop more empowering strategies that work and are relevant for your culture


Stage 3: Action

Kurt Lewin, the founder of modern social psychology, introduced the corporate world to

experiential learning, group dynamics and action research. Through his work and that of

those who followed, they taught us the importance of using our environment as a living

laboratory, in which the process of Reflecting, Planning, Acting and Observing helps us to

become more effective leaders. Key to action research is understanding that it is through

action that we learn.

Taking action propels us away from doing nothing to doing something. It helps us to gain

confidence, learn about ourselves and others and our larger context, and ultimately make

more informed choices and decisions that lead to deeper and more impactful interventions

on all levels. Taking action also helps us notice and become aware of the impact of our

choices on others. We also learn to walk in the shoes others, seeking to understand their

world, so that we can develop empathy, and deepen our understanding of the shared

values, norms, and cultural implications that are constantly at play when we interact with

others. I embed these same action research principles in this critical third stage of my

Sustainable Leadership Framework.

Taking action is not, however, a static process. It must be done with an awareness that the

world changes, and so any actions taken must remain open to shifts and alterations to fit

new contexts as they arise. The problem is, in many change and leadership development

programs, participants typically go through a process and are expected to deliver on a fixed

“planned change project” that has a beginning, middle, and end. They often must select a

project that has a finite goal and must do whatever it takes to make it a success. The problem

with this approach is that, as soon as participants begin interacting with others to plan and

implement their project, they quickly discover they need to learn how to adapt to

unexpected changes and dynamics that inevitably emerge. Too many initiatives don’t plan

for this shifting experience, other than as a contingency or at the end of the process as a

reflection in the wrap up, debrief, or post-mortem.

In the Sustainable Leadership Development Framework, the certainty of emergent action is

taken into account from the beginning. We encourage people to notice the impact of their

actions and make any necessary adjustments along the way. This helps them become more

aware and sensitive to what is working and what is not, as well as more willing to adjust


their choices accordingly. They learn how to be not just effective leaders, but observers and

interveners throughout the action process.

Here is 6-point plan to capture the emergent learning that invariably happens during the

action phase:

1. Develop learning goals that are aligned with the strategy and supported with an

action plan with timelines and measures of success;

2. Formulate a baseline of questions to ask participants that measure their confidence in

leading change and the key competencies they are developing;

3. Build in checkpoint meetings in which you ask participants to reflect on their

experiences, share their observations, and talk about what they are learning about

themselves, their teams, the organization, and their work.

4. Look for themes, patterns and observations about the values, norms, and culture of

the organization. Discuss what, if anything, has changed about them, or what was or

could be modified or adapted from their original plan and why it changed or needs

to change?

5. Identify what in their action steps might need to be leveraged or what needs to be

shifted.

6. Ask participants to adapt their plans accordingly.

Here are some questions to help participants identify the emerging themes and issues that

they experienced. These questions are usually completed at a key milestone, checkpoint or

as they wrap up their project.

Emerging Themes and Issues Questionnaire

1. What are some of your most exciting moments that you experienced working on this project or challenge?

2. What happened? What did you do? 3. Why was this experience so special or meaningful for you? 4. What fears, worries, obstacles or barriers are you facing? 5. What are you choosing to share with others? 6. What are you keeping to yourself? Why? 7. What personal leadership challenges do you need to overcome in order to be successful? 8. Where did you experience conflict or stress? 9. What did you do? 10. Were your actions effective? 11. What would you do differently? 12. What supports do you need to sustain your leadership development?


Here are ways to measure impact during the Action Phase.

Ways to measure impact during Action Strategies for next steps

Measure the increase in the participant’s

knowledge and skills through self-ratings and

that of others

Track actions for what was implemented, what

was changed and what needs to be adjusted

Track themes and patterns from shared

experiences, actions and learning

Personal leadership reflection questions and

journals

Competency assessments

Coaching conference calls

Follow up meetings/check point meetings

Participant reflections in each workshop

Quality and quantity of reflections and impacts

reported in learning groups that take place in-

between structured learning sessions

Tell stories to increase transparency in

learning reinforce the culture shifts, learning

and leadership competencies for success

Create a common understanding of the

cultural and systemic issues/context needed

to be challenged and those needed for success

Provide real life and current examples of

successful projects and lessons, concepts and

tools that can be replicated across the

organization

Create an understanding of personal strengths

and challenges that are most often shared by

others, dispel isolation and create support

systems

Use this information to set priorities and goal

setting for personal development

Identify resources and a support system to

draw on for personal growth and success in

the implementation of their projects.

Stage 4: Impact

As you can see, measuring the impact of a leadership development or change initiative is

critical to understanding what is needed for sustainability. In this framework, while I call

Impact the fourth stage, it actually must take place throughout the three previous stages of

alignment, integration, and action. Measuring the results and impact at every stage of the

program at the individual, team, and organizational levels provides rich data, deep insights,

and new strategies that sustain leadership development and culture shifts throughout and

beyond the program. The image of the escalator implies that the evaluation is an iterative

and fluid process that needs to be linked to the strategy, actions and results on the

individual, team, organizational and community levels.

Finally, here are some strategies to measure impact.


Ways to measure impact at the end of the

process

Strategies for next steps

Measurements of the impact of the

participant’s performance and/or learning on

the client experience, business and/or the

culture shifts and changes

Track the number of projects completed and

the qualitative results achieved (cost savings,

time, quality, improvements in products and

services, etc.)

Review the action research projects results,

depth and degree of impact

Quality and quantity of discussions with Senior

Management

Quality and quantity of discussions with peers

and direct reports

Quality and quantity of discussions and work

with customers and partners

Review or retest of employee / customer /

stakeholder satisfaction surveys

Common understanding of the change

Shared mindset

Increased perception and confidence in

leaders

Completion of key activities, milestones

Success Stories

Further development of strategies, plans and

projects to sustain change and go to the next

step

Checkpoint meetings with Senior Staff, all key

leaders, and stakeholders

Annual and quarterly Senior Management

Team Meetings

Managers Forums

Workshops

Quality and Quantity of Senior Management

participation in learning forums

Benchmarking

Assess employees understanding and

adoption of change at all levels of the

organization

Assess the effectiveness and usage of the

network

Leverage ideas from other areas and

departments

Increase pride in working at the organization

Increase sense of belonging

Increase employee confidence and a sense

of what they need to be successful

Increase breadth, depth and scope of their

projects and work

Transfer knowledge and leverage of wise

practices being used in other places

Assess pace and adoption of change

Assess process and results of organizational

plans and alignment

Check to see if the changes are tracked as a

separate items, or if they are part of

everyone’s work and every strategic plan

Determine if the vision elements are

implemented and being used e.g.

technology, business models, etc.


Conclusion

This Sustainable Leadership Development Framework’s key stages of Alignment-

Integration-Action-Impact is more than an evaluation framework. It is an integrated

approach to leadership and organizational development that results in sustainable culture

shifts and business results.

The strategies, tactics and tools that support this model can be adapted to any

organizational context. They are designed to help you think about how to integrate your

own personal leadership capabilities, with your approach to developing others and

ultimately your organization.

Key to success is also recognizing that leadership development happens at all levels. It is a

process that needs to be continuously monitored, evaluated and sustained over time.

As we have discussed, evaluating the effectiveness, impact and sustainability of leadership

development programs is complex. In order to build lasting culture change, it is vital to

take a large-scale systems approach that, like the butterfly effect, happens through the

engagement and active participation of the larger numbers of employees, across groups and

geographies, and at deeper levels of change.

Sustainable change requires the alignment and integration of vision, strategy and context in

the program design, curriculum and actions at all levels of the organization.


About the Author

Beverley Patwell, MA, CHRP, is President of Patwell Consulting

Inc. She is an international organizational development practitioner

with over 30 years of experience developing and implementing

organizational development and change solutions to meet business

needs in private and public sector organizations. Beverley has a

Masters of Arts Degree in Human Systems Intervention from

Concordia University. She teaches at the Stayer Centre for Executive

Education at the University of Notre Dame and in the Masters of

Organizational Development Program at Sonoma State. Beverley is also a facilitator for the

Queen’s IRC Designing Change program. She is a member of the Organizational

Development Network (ODN) and a senior associate and coach with the Niagara Institute.

She is co-author of the book Triple Impact Coaching: Use of Self in the Coaching Process.

http://irc.queensu.ca/training/designing-change-leading-change-plan-sucessfully-organizational-culture-and-leadership-change-strategy


References

Mintzberg, H. (2011). “From Management Development to Organizational Development

with Impact.” OD Practitioner. Vol 43 No 3.

Mintzberg, H. (2009). “Rebuilding Companies as Communities.” Harvard Business Review

89, no. 7/8 (2009): 1-6.

Patwell, B. (2013) “Why Coaching Must Play an Integral Role in Leading and Managing in

Today’s Workplace” Kingston, ON: Queen’s University IRC. Retrieved from:

http://irc.queensu.ca/articles/why-coaching-must-play-integral-role-leading-and-

managing-todays-workplace

Patwell, B., Gray, D. Kanellakos, S. (2012) “An Innovative Approach to Fostering A Culture

of Service Excellence in the City of Ottawa.” Kingston, ON: Queen’s University IRC.

Retrieved from: http://irc.queensu.ca/articles/innovative-approach-fostering-culture-

service-excellence-city-ottawa

Patwell, B., Gray, D. Kanellakos, S. (2012) “Discovering the Magic of Culture Shifts. A Case

Study in Large Scale Transformational Change.” The OD Practitioner 44. No 1 (2012b)

11-17.

Patwell, B. & Whitfield Seashore, E. (2006) Triple Impact Coaching: Use of Self in the Coaching

Process. Bingham House Books.

Ulrich, D. & Smallwood, N. (2013) Leadership Sustainability: Seven Disciplines to Achieve the

Changes Great Leaders Know They Must Make. McGraw-Hill Education.

Marshak, R., Organizational Change: Views From The Edge. The Lewin Center

http://irc.queensu.ca/articles/why-coaching-must-play-integral-role-leading-and-managing-todays-workplace

http://irc.queensu.ca/articles/why-coaching-must-play-integral-role-leading-and-managing-todays-workplace



Industrial Relations Centre (IRC)

Queen’s University Kingston, ON K7L 3N6

irc.queensu.ca

http://irc.queensu.ca/

Documents

Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts · 2014-10-30 · Leadership Sustainability: A Framework to Sustain Culture Shifts Beverley Patwell, MA, CHRP President,